Head First HTML with CSS

more about markup and tags
Q: So HTML is just a bunch of tags
that I put around my text?
A: For starters. Remember that HTML
stands for HyperText Markup Language, so
HTML gives you a way to “mark up” your
text with tags that tell the browser how your
text is structured. But there is also the
HyperText aspect of HTML, which we’ll talk
about a little later in the book.
Q: How does the browser decide how
to display the HTML?
A: HTML tells your browser about
the structure of your document: where the
headings are, where the paragraphs are,
what text needs emphasis, and so on.
Given this information, browsers have builtin
default rules for how to display each of
these elements.
But, you don’t have to settle for the default
settings. You can add your own style and
formatting rules with CSS that determine
font, colors, size, and a lot of other
characteristics of your page. We’ll get back
to CSS later in the chapter.
Q: The HTML for the Head First
Lounge has all kinds of indentation and
spacing, and yet I don’t see that when it
is displayed in the browser. How come?
A: Correct, and good catch. Browsers
ignore tabs, returns, and most spaces in
HTML documents. Instead, they rely on
your markup to determine where line and
6 Chapter 1
there are no
Dumb Questions
paragraph breaks occur.
So why did we insert our own formatting if
the browser is just going to ignore it? To
help us more easily read the document when
we’re editing the HTML. As your HTML
documents become more complicated,
you’ll find a few spaces, returns, and tabs
here and there really help to improve the
readability of the HTML.
Q: So there are two levels of
headings, and a subheading ?
A: Actually there are six,
through , which the browser typically
displays in successively smaller font sizes.
Unless you are creating a complex and
large document, you typically won’t use
headings beyond .
Q: Why do I need the tag?
Isn’t it obvious this is a HTML document?
A: The tag tells the browser
your document is actually HTML. While
some browsers will forgive you if you omit
it, some won’t, and as we move toward
“industrial strength HTML” later in the book,
you’ll see it is quite important to include
this tag.
Q: What makes a file an HTML file?
A: Basically an HTML file is a simple
text file. Unlike a word processing file, there
is no special formatting embedded in it. By
convention we add a “.html” or “.htm” (on
systems that only support three letter file
extensions) to the end of the file name to
give the operating system a better idea of
what the file is. But, as you’ve seen, what
really matters is what we put inside the file.
Q: Markup seems silly. What-yousee-is-what-you-get
applications have
been around since, what, the ‘70s? Why
isn’t the Web based on a format like
Microsoft Word or a similar application?
A: The Web is created out of text files
without any special formatting characters.
This enables any browser in any part of
the world to retrieve a Web page and
understand its contents. You’ll see that
on the Web, in many ways HTML is more
powerful than using a proprietary document
format.
Q: Is there any way to put comments
to myself in HTML?
A: Yes, if you place your comments
in between the browser will
totally ignore them. Say you wanted to write
a comment “Here’s the beginning of the
lounge content”. You’d do that like this:
Notice that you can put comments on
multiple lines. Keep in mind anything you
put between the “”, even
HTML, will be ignored by the browser.